the first demonstrations in the Valley are done without any problems and with perfect results. The first demonstration was in the south of Holtville at the first of April early in the morning and the weather became after the first bales really bad. It started to rain, and we had to stop the demonstration for a couple of hours. After Breakfast the sun came back, and so we were able to bale in the afternoon again. The bale weights and the bale shape was pretty well. We had 7 feet bales with 1800 lbs and 12 - 13% moisture. In the afternoon the hay dried very fast, so at the beginning we had also good results, but at the end it was to dry to get really heavy bales. They were heavy enough, but not as heavy as in the morning.
Edit: One more picture of the Hesston baler - but it is the second and last bale, he did, so you also can't compare the bale shape to the Krone bales. But the customer told us, that he can't reach the bale weights we did with the HDP with his Hesston baler and that he liked the shape of the Krone bales very much.
After the first demonstration we had to clean the whole baler with a pressure washer. Normally it works pretty well when we use our leaf blower to blow away all the dust and dirt, but after the rain in the morning there was no chance to remove it only with air. After we searched a little bit in the Holtville area we found this car wash place, which was high enough (11ft) for the JCB (11ft 6 inch). It was also wide enough for the Phiber accumulator.
´Our second demonstration was in the north of the Valley nearby Brawley with the "four by four" - the BiG Pack 12130 - at a local feedlot. They normally bale with three Hesston balers, but I think, they really liked the performance of the Krone too. We were able to drive roundabout 30% faster and we still had better looking bales. The interested person, we ran the demo for, liked also the EasyFlow PickUp without cam track very much. A really nice constant flow into the machine without any losing of hay amazed him. Also his three operators drove the JCB with the Krone baler, and after a few minutes they made also pretty good bales. He liked it so much, that we were allowed to come back the next day to show also his father our baler on the field.
The next demonstration was in the morning of April 8th north east of Holtville. The customer has several dairys and has to haul his hay over long distances out of the imperial valley. We made some nice heavy 8 feet long bales (average 1800 lbs) with 13-15% moisture, and I think he also liked the Krone baler very much. Another customer in the valley baled for him with an Krone HDP before, and so he also knew a lot about our baler and the nice heavy bales. His demonstration started early in the morning.
The same evening we wanted to demonstrate nearby Westmorland, but it was still to dry in the evening. So we stopped the demonstration at 10 pm and came back today in the morning. At 8.30 am we met at the field, but we had to wait a little bit before we could start again, because it was to wet. At 11 am, we had already done 80 bales, we had to stop again, because now it became to dry. So, the time windows for baling export hay in the valley are very short which makes it not easier to plan aour demonstrations.
We also used my bale scale in the front hitch the first time.
So far for the moment.
Regards Niklas
